Ari Aster’s five favourite horror movies of all time
Ever since his debut feature Hereditary, Ari Aster has steadily solidified his reputation as one of the most exciting filmmakers in the world of modern horror cinema. Through unique projects such as Midsommar, Aster has revitalised the frameworks of contemporary horror while developing his specific visual style. Having received acclaim from fans, critics, and directors like Martin Scorsese, Aster’s career is experiencing a meteoric trajectory.
After the widespread success of Midsommar, Aster has returned with a new film called Beau is Afraid, which stars Joaquin Phoenix, a paranoid man who embarks on a difficult personal journey while trying to come to terms with his own fears. If you’re a fan of Aster’s previous works and are wondering what his new project is going to look like, this is the perfect time to check out the horror masterpieces he considers to be his favourite.
While discussing his picks, Aster began with Kwaidan. He said: “There are so many Japanese horror films that I felt compelled to include – from Onibaba to Ugetsu to The Face of Another to Cure – but Kobayashi’s grand anthology might be the most breathtakingly beautiful horror film ever made”. Adapted from four of Lafcadio Hearn’s remarkable ghost stories, Kwaidan is ethereal and haunting and possessed of a totally devouring commitment to artifice.
Aster also included The Night of the Hunter: “What else might Charles Laughton have made? As with Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom, the custodians of culture deemed it pornographic and prevented Laughton from ever making another film, but its legacy is unmatched. Prefiguring so many coups to come — from Lynch’s work to the Coens’ to Kubrick’s to Greenaway’s — Laughton’s Expressionist masterpiece is so great that it makes me want to pull my arms off.”
In addition, the filmmaker cited Don’t Look Now as an influence: “Arguably Nicolas Roeg’s greatest film (there’s a case to be made for Walkabout), this is a dead-serious reckoning with grief, a meditation on time and memory (or is it prophecy?) and a warm, uncanny hug of doom. Taking its editing cues from Resnais and doing so much with Venice that it would be futile to try topping it, this is a film that gives and gives upon repeat viewings—and socks you in the gut every time.”
Check out the list below.
Ari Aster’s favourite horror movies
- Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, 1964)
- Possession (Andrzej Żuławski, 1981)
- The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
- Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
- Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)
Aster’s selection of his favourite horror movies is an eclectic one, featuring lesser-known gems as well as beloved classics like Brian De Palma’s Stephen King adaptation Carrie. One of the most interesting films on Aster’s list is Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 masterpiece Possession, a strange cinematic experience about the violent breakdown of the institution of marriage.
When asked about the greatness of Żuławski’s cinematic vision, Aster explained: “One of the great movies about divorce and the agony of romantic disentanglement. A thrilling rebuke to restraint, subtlety and ‘logic’ (as the squares know it). Here is storytelling that is radically emotional and stubbornly intuitive at the expense of almost all else.”
